What Type of Cleaning Do You Need to Do in Your Home?

Keeping a Tidy House

Your home may be your castle, but unless you’re actually royalty, it’s also yours to clean. Fortunately, the right tips and tools can make cleaning the house quicker and easier, leaving you more time to enjoy living in it.

Home cleaning can be divided into two basic categories: regular cleaning and major cleaning. Major cleaning generally occurs less frequently and involves more effort. Regular cleaning occurs on a frequent basis (sometimes daily) but tends to require less work. For example, wiping down the stove top is part of regular kitchen cleaning, whereas oven cleaning is a major cleaning task.

Regular Residential Cleaning

Living can be messy business. Even the most mundane, everyday tasks require cleaning up. From making the bed when you get up to washing the dinner dishes before you go to bed, daily life is full of small cleaning tasks. Depending on the number of people and pets and the level of activity in your household, larger tasks such as dusting, vacuuming and doing laundry may also become almost daily chores. Even in small, quiet, pet-free households, these chores are part of the regular cleaning cycle. Most people should try to dust, mop and vacuum at least once a week.

Major Residential Cleaning

While sweeping, mopping and vacuuming should be part of regular carpet cleaning and floor cleaning, waxing, polishing and shampooing are major floor cleaning projects and need only be undertaken every few months on average. Households with pets, or in which a family member is prone to allergies, may consider shampooing their carpets more often, since carpets and rugs are known to trap dirt, dust and allergens, especially pet dander.

Furniture cleaning is another major house cleaning project. You may dust shelves and tabletops fairly frequently, but a thorough cleaning and polishing every few months is a sure way to make sure your wooden furniture lasts. And don’t forget to properly care for upholstered and leather furniture, too. These pieces should be properly cleaned and treated every few months to keep them looking fresh.

Other major household chores include cleaning grout and major appliances (fridge, freezer, oven, furnace, etc.) and sorting through the clutter that tends to collect in closets, drawers, attics, basements and other out-of-the-way places.

Cleaning house is few people’s idea of fun, but establishing and maintaining a regular cleaning routine will help make the job more manageable and your home more enjoyable.